EnergySolutions in May signed a $9.45 million contract to complete dismantling and decommissioning of the long-retired Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) facility in Arkansas.
This final leg of the remediation includes placing the reactor itself into a special container in October. The reactor is one of the few structures left on the site, according to the University of Arkansas, which is in charge of the SEFOR project.
Disposal of the reactor and its ancillary equipment should be finished in December, according to slides from a June 28 presentation by EnergySolutions and University of Arkansas officials in West Fork, Ark. Disposal of any low-level radioactive waste should be completed in January 2019.
University spokesman Steve Voorhies said by email Thursday he expects the material will be taken from Arkansas to one of the EnergySolutions-operated waste disposal sites.
Decommissioning operations should largely be completed in March, with the Arkansas Department of Health and Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality hopefully giving their final blessing to the finished project in May 2019, according to the slide presentation. The site will be returned to greenfield status.
The fiscal 2018 federal omnibus budget, which President Donald Trump signed in March, includes $10 million for the Energy Department to fund final cleanup of the 20-megawat sodium-cooled nuclear test reactor constructed in 1968. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, a DOE predecessor, retired the reactor and removed its fuel in the early 1970s.
The university used the plant for 11 years for research, starting in 1975, and ended up becoming SEFOR’s caretaker. The Energy Department was later assigned responsibility for the reactor’s cleanup following passage of the 2005 Energy Policy Act. A remediation plan was drafted between 2009 and 2011.
The second work phase of work by EnergySolutions was paid for through a $10.5 million DOE grant to the university in October 2016. The most recent federal funding, announced by Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and U.S. Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), enabled EnergySolutions to resume work this spring.
Over time, “basically everything at the site — several buildings, the control rooms, storage buildings were assessed — then when funding became available everything was removed — except for the reactor,” Voorhies said.
The reactor building takes up 3 acres on a site of about 620 acres, according to Voorhies. EnergySolutions, a Salt Lake City-based nuclear services company, deferred comments to the university.
